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DE CORONA. 355will bo tho malities in tho actuat manifestation ' Look at
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For my pari, haring on the spol made some observations in the negative suitia in the place and time, Ι also, oWing to the rudeness of some persons, took aWay missi me thesubject but hali treared, meming to set it forin noW moro fullyis my pen; for your inquiry had interested me in it, and thostate os the times had alaeady on iis oWn account pressed it Monme. For as persecutions in increasing number threaten us, sothe more are Wo called on in give earnest thought to tho que tion os hoW faith ought in receive them. And the duty of refulty considering it concerns yοu no less, Who no do i, bynot accepting the Comsorter, the guide to ali truth, have, as Was naturat, opposed us hitherio in regard in other questionsatio. Wo have therelare applied a methodicia treaiment, tomis your inquio, as me see that me must fini come to a decisionas to how the matter stanti in regard to persecution itself, whether it comes on from God or from tho devit, that withtho less difficulty We may get on firm ground as to our du to meet it; sor of everything one's knowledge is clearer Whenit is known from Whom it has iis origin. It is enouo indeod
occasion to the other discussions is one mae ans er Ther
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DE FUGA IN PERSEO TONE. 357 say, stat nothing happens Without God's Wili; on tho ground
that persecution is especialty Worthy of God, and, sο to speis, requisite, for the approving, to Wit, or is Fou Wili, the rejectionos His professing servants. For What is tho issus os pers cution, What other result comes of it, but the approving and
ness and love, in holiness and temperance. There is no mom,
in faci, sor auot but sear and liope. So even by this verything me have it clearly proved that persecution, improving asit does tho servants of God, cannot bo imputed to the devit. 2. Ιs, heca s injustico is not Irom God, but hom tho
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devit, and persecution consista es injustico r What mors unjust than that the bishops of tho truo God, that ali stofollowers of the truth, shouid bo deiat With ahar tho mannis of the vilest criminals l), persecution ineratore Mems in pro- ω imm tho devit, is Whom the injustice Whicli constitutes persecution is perpetrateri Wo ought to kno' as Du haveneither persecution Without the injustice of the devit, nor thereiat os fatis mithout persecution, that the injustice nece sisy for the trial of faith does not ove a Warrant for po meution, but supplies an agen ; that in realit' in reserinceto tho mal of faith, Which is the reamn os persecution, the willos God mes fidit, but stat as the instrument of persecution, whicli is the way of tries, tho injustice of tho devii Allovs. For in other resperes, i , injustics in proportion to theenmity it displays against righteo ness afforti occasion forattestations of that in Which it is opposed as an e my, thalso righteonsnem may be perfected in injustice, as strengin is perfected in Winta s. For tho mea things of the . id havo been chosen by God in confound the strong, and tho Oollah things of the worid in confound iis Wisdom. Thus oven injustice is emplayed, that righteo ness may be approvinin pulting unrighte mess to stame. Theresere, aince theservice is not of De Will, but os subjection ior persecutionis the appotniment of the Loes for tho trial of faith, but iis ministry is tho injustico of the devit, supplied that persee tion may be got up), - belimo that persecution comes topass, no question, by the devit's agencri but not by tho douit 'sorigination. Satan mill not be at liberu to do anythingagainst the servants of the. living God untem the Loes grant leave, either stat Hs may overthro Satan himself by thosaith of tho eleet which proves victorious in the triat, or insto saco os the wοHd sho. that apostatigera to tho devit's causo have been in reali Ηis servandi. You have the caseos Job, Whom the devit, uni s he had received authori hom God, could not have visited missi triat, not even, in fac in his proper , unless the Lord had ses' μ Behold, ali thatho has I put at yοur disposai; but do not stretch out Dur
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360 TERTULLIANUS ought as by any right of his o n, because the cases marhedout in Scripture shon When-that is, for What reasons omay tοuch them. For either, With a vie to their beingappmved, the poWer of triat is granted to him, challengod orchallenging, as in the instances atready referred is, Or, to Secure an opposite result, the sinner is handed over is him, as though he were an executioner to whom belonged thoinflicting of punishment, as in the case of Saul. - Αnd tho Spirit os tho Lord, says Scripture, departed from Saul, and an erit spirit Dom tho Lord uoubled and stiflod him; V or the design is to humble, as the apostle telis us, stat there Was given him a stae, the messenger of Satan, to binethim ; ' and even this sori of thing is not permitted in the cassos holy men, uniem it be that at the samo time strennii ofendurance may be perfected in meahness. For the apostis like so dolivored Phygellus and Hermogenes over to Satan, that by chastening they might be taught not to blaspheme.' u see, then, that the devit receives more sultably poWer even from the servants of God; so far is ho from having itis any right of his o n.
3. Seeing thereiore, toο, these cases occur in persecutions more than at ollier times, as there is then among us more os proving rejecting, more os ab ing or punishing, it mustbe that their generat occurrence is permitted or commanded
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DE FUGA IN PERSECUTIONE. 361 by tho mill of God. M to this I know not who can doubi,untem it M persons With frivolous and frigid faith, which
4. Woli, then, is it is evident hom Whom persecution pr cisti, me are able at once to satisfy your doubis, and todecido from these introductory remaris Hone, that men
prehension. For every severat nature is a certain definitoreali , and it lus it on tho perceptive poWer to perceive it
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362 TERTULLIANUS just as it exista. Nom is that which comes hom God ismod indoed in iis natural sints for there is nothing from God Which is not good, becauso it is divine, hecauso it is reason lo, but mems ovil to tho human faculty, ali mill boright in rogard to tho former; With the lalter the favit Willlio. In iis reat nature a very good ining is chasti , and sola truth, and w is righteo nem; and yet they are distastetalis many. Is perhaps the reat naturo on this account sacrificed in the sense of perceptioni Thus persecution in iis οὐ nature ino is good, bemum it is a divine and reason loap intinent; but inose in Whom it comes as a punishment do not foet it in bo ple ant. You seo that as promedingsrom Him, even that evit has a reasonable ground, When onein persecution is east out os a state of salvation, just as yousee that you have a reasonable nound for the good also,
Whon one by persecution has his salvation miae more Secum.
Unles' as it dependa on the Lord, one either pertines ire tionalin or is irrationalty favet he wili not be able to speinoi persecution as an evit, Whicli, While it is under the dire tion os reason, is, even in respect of ita erit, g d. So, is persecution is in every Way a good, b ause it has a natural
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DE FUGA IN PERSECUTIONE. 363you have made such a presupposition; and nou it is vian formu to thiis of flight, stat Du may amid densng, When in intention Du havo dentia alaeady. But is yoti are do Uulon that potnt, Why do: you nos, in the incertitude os D armavering belmen the two different issues, presume that youare able raster in aci a confessor's pari and w add is your
us bestis to relata our position in submission to the will of God, than to fles at our οὐ Mil. Rutilius, a saintly martyr, after haring ostlimes fled imm persecution iram place to place,
money, Was, notWithstanding the complete securi he had, asho thought, provided for himself, at last unexpectedly selaed, and Ming brought beiore tho magistrate, Was put in the to tum and crueily mangi ,-a punishment, I belleve, for his fleeing, nd thereaster he was consigned in the flames, and thus pald to the mercy of God the suffering Whicli ho had shun d. What esse did the Lord mean to fhoπ us by this example, but that We ought not to fleo hom persecutionbecaum it avails us nothing ii God disapproves
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TERTULLIANUS 6. Nay, says some one, he fulsilled the commmd, When hossed hom city to city. For so a certain individual, but a
fugitivo likowiso, has chosen to maintain, and others havo done the fame who are unWilling to understand the meaning
persons of the apostles, and to their times and circumstances,as tho solio ing sentences Will shoW, Whicli are sultable onlyto the apostles: μ Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and into a ci of the Samaritans do not enter: but go raster toste tost shoop of the house of Israel. y But in us the way of the Gentiles is also open, as in it me in fact were found, and to the very last me math; and no city has been excepted. Somo preach throughout ali the World; nan no speciat caro oven for Israel has been laid upon us, fave as also κε arebound to proach to ali nations. Yes, and is We are appre
sistod beforo Roman magistrates and judgment-seris.' So, then, the circumstances of the apostles even required tho in